Game recap – Victory at last! Wizards beat Philly 116-102

In a game of x-factors, the Wizards picked up their first regular season win against the Philadelphia 76ers in what was a career night for John Wall.

X-Factor number one: John Wall. I will discuss him in depth below as he is the MVP of the game; but Wall had one of the more impressive outings that I can remember in recent history with the three-ball sinking so easily as well as his ability to feed into Gortat in the post, which leads me to…

X-Factor number two: Marcin Gortat. Gortat got his first start of the season tonight and because of this, I predicted a Wizards win before the game. He proved me right as he gilled the stat sheet with 19 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, one steal and a block.

X-Factor number three: 48 minutes. For the first time this season, the Wizards played (for the most part) 48 full minutes of high-octane basketball. With a 39-point first quarter, they came out blazing. Although they had some slow moments throughout the game, they never let Philly take the lead and ultimately became the team that just wouldn’t die.

MVP: John Wall – 24 points,9 assists, 1 steal, 5-8 3-PT FG

Early on, I thought I would be going with Marcin Gortat for game MVP due to his quick start, but Wall’s career high five 3-pointers and overall oozing of confidence made me go with him. While some on Twitter were a little disgusted with the fact that he kept leaning on the three, I found it to be refreshing. It’s obviously not going to work for him every night, but he obviously saw it was and kept up with it when it made sense, going 5-for-8 from deep on the night.

LVP: Eric Maynor

Eric Maynor still has a lot to prove to me as the backup point guard for this team. He slowed down the game quite a bit whenever he stepped on the floor and I think was one of the main reasons for the slow second quarter the Wizards had. He went 2-7 from the field in 12 minutes and just literally seemed worthless to me on the floor. I was a big fan of his acquisition, but hope to see him prove himself much better in future games.

Key stat of the game: – Wizards 18-for-33 on 3-PT FG’s (54.5%)

The Wizards scored a team-record 18 3-pointers in a game that they needed to do so versus a highly energetic Philly squad. It is a little nerve-wracking to know that they needed this many threes to only win by 14, but I have to give credit where credit is due to the Wizards for finding a way to pull this one out.

Tweet of the night:

me ————->

What’s next:

The Wizards take on the 2-2 Brooklyn Nets at the Phone Booth. Or as Steve Buckhantz described it, “Andray Blatche and the Brooklyn Nets.” Expect a physical game with high emotions as the Wizards and Nets had some testy moments the past couple of seasons in their matchups. If we see the team that came out to play tonight (and I think we will), I believe this will be an easy win for John Wall and the Wizards.